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Skylar Spencer grabbed the rebound above the rim and threw an outlet pass to Winston Shepard, who evaded a smaller defender with two dribbles and fired a cross-court pass to a streaking Matt Shrigley.

Freshman to freshman to freshman.

The most impressive part, though, is this: You need a roster to know that.

If there has been a theme during the first week of basketball practice at San Diego State, it’s not that Jamaal Franklin or Chase Tapley or Xavier Thames all look improved, or that the three transfers are athletic and talented. We knew that already. It’s that the three freshmen are, too.

He spoke in a near whisper, as if the rest of the conference and country won’t hear him, as if he’s embarrassed by the riches suddenly overflowing in a program that went 5-23 in his first season and until two years ago had never been ranked or won an NCAA Tournament game.

Now the USA Today coaches preseason poll is released and the Aztecs are No. 20, and fans are grumbling that it’s too low.

Which also tells you how good the three S’s – Spencer, Shepard and Shrigley – might be. It’s not like they’re making a case for minutes on a team that lost 20 game and four starters.

Part of it, certainly, is a new NCAA rule allowing coaches to work with their players, incoming freshmen included, during the summer if they are enrolled in classes. A bigger part is that great unknown about freshmen – how they adjust to the size and speed of the college game – is no longer an unknown.

“I’m very impressed with them,” Fisher said, who had no true freshmen last season and two the year before, “with their willingness to be fearless in terms of how they play, to compete with a bit an edge about them the right way and to be smart. They’ve been pretty good, all three of them.”

The 6-foot-8 Shepard from Las Vegas Findlay Prep was expected to, of course, being the first five-star recruit to pick the Aztecs out of high school. He might not break any scoring records, but he does all those things that are like a dog whistle to opposing coaches – penetrate, pass, rebound, defend, block shots.

He handles the ball well enough that Fisher’s staff is considering him as a backup point guard. Some rated him the top high school defender in the nation last season, his size and quick feet affording him the unheard-of ability to guard four and, in some cases, all five positions on the floor.

“What he likes to do in practice, he wants to guard Jamaal,” Fisher said. “He wants to guard X. He wants to guard whoever is perceived to be the guy looking to score on the other team … And he enjoys making plays for others. He’s a guy, when he has the ball and he gets into that gap, he’s going to find you. He’s big and long and he knows how to play.”